We were invited to Uncle Gérard's mansion for a stay over the weekend.
His place is just around an hour ride from Paris, but along the way I saw lots of greens, which is really pleasing to the eyes when you dwell in a city for too long. ^^
You see the rays from the sun shining onto a vast plain of tall grasses, where the grasses bend over in one direction coherently as the wind blows...
*********************************
I like the cosy feeling it gives.
With flowers climbing along each wall of the house.
It was huge.
With a total of 6 bedrooms, one huge underground basement, a garage enough for 3 cars and a big garden at its back.
There are a lot of fruit trees in his garden but it was just too bad that the fruits are still too early for harvest now.
It is either they are still green, still small, or got eaten by the birds (like those cherries and wild strawberries he had).
LOL.
-The path heading to the garden at the back-
Did you see those 2 little green apples?
Something that resembles grapes but Uncle Gérard said this is poisonous.
Alas, it has colours to beautiful to resist not to be taken as a picture.
-The pine tree in the morning with dew drops-
And the snail dropped by to say "Bonjour" to everyone in the house.. ^^
*********************************
Everyone woke up early in the morning the next day for a walk in the forest, and a visit to a typical French market, as well as a hearty lunch after that.
Lunch in the midst of the woods...
How nice is that? ^^
-The kitchen that overlooks part of the garden-
*********************************
-A really nice change for city~dwellers like us isn't it?-
*********************************
We reached this wet market after we went through the woods.
My MIL was repeating to me these few words as I (the little Chinese girl among all the Frenchies) started to explore their market with my camera, "This is very very typical French market."
Just look at all the different kinds of breads they have to offer...
-Fresh, hand-made pastas, tortellinos, etc-
It is nice to see that the French still keep their tradition of having markets like these.
Unlike Singapore's wet markets which is reducing in number and rapidly being replaced by Hyper-Supermarkets.
-All the different kinds of sausages you can name-
I was very surprised to find something that looks like our Chinese dish, "三层肉" and "炉猪蹄"
French eat 咸菜 too??????????????
-Every mouse delight!!-
This woman is pouring melted cheese into a tub.
See it?
-Their range of seafood-
However, what puzzles me everytime is, why do they have to sell their prawns and crabs sauteed instead of raw?
They are fresh of cos, very fresh and tasty!! (I tried them many times)
But, why are they cook beforehand??
*********************************
-Restaurant in the midst of the woods-
-My appetiser, sauteed prawns in cream sauce-
This is Will's appetiser - Beef with the season's fresh melon slices, and cheese at the 4 corners of the plate.
Uncle Gérard and my MIL had foie gras with toasts.
I like my main dish best!!
It is my favorite scallops with a kind of rice with a fragrance I don't know how to describe.
Some kind of spices they used..
But the main thing were those big and thick scallops!! ^^
The 3 of us had the same main dish but Will wanted beef.
He commented it was nice too though.
Alas, I was too busy with my scallops to be bothered to try his.
And, I don't allow him to get an inch near my scallops!!
Hahaha.
-Fromage blanc which came after that-
It tasted like yogurt with a slight cheesy taste.
-My dessert-
It is strawberries, strawberry flavored crème and sauce, topped with layers of very thin, crispy wafers.
Adding to this was sugar icing by the sides where you can eat it with your fresh strawberries.
-How it looks like by the side-
-Will's dessert, Fondant au Chocolat with Crème Anglaise-
To make this short and sweet, I tried Will's and decided to make an exchange with him.
LOL.
It is not that mine is not nice, but I favour chocolate anything to creamy stuff anytime.
There is café and tea after that and our lunch took some 3 hours to finish.
But this is a really normal timing for a dining affair in France.
*********************************
We were walking back to the house when I chanced upon this plant...
Nobody can tell me what this is.
So, I called it the 毛毛球 plant.
Kekeke.
Does the sight of these flowers along the roads cheer you up??
-Right or Left??-
*********************************
Uncle Gérard knows I like to snap everything in my sight (冤枉啊!! 哈哈哈!!), hence, he took me in his car with everyone for a small tour around his place.
-A monument in memorial of WWI-
This sheltered area under the roof used to be where women used to wash their clothes in this river.
-The castle up in the woods-
We drove right up to this castle, but it is just a small one.
Nothing glamorous and no comparison to the one in Versailles, which is just 15km away from where Uncle Gérard lives.
-One of my favourite pics I took over the weekend-
I caught these creatures at a tree just outside the castle.
They called these "Gendarmes" in French, but I don't know what is it named in English..
Anyone can enlighten me?
*********************************
Night time is really short in Summer here.
The sun will show itself at around 0530hrs and the sky will still be quite bright at 2200hrs...
Sometimes, it is really deluding to my senses.
It made me waited for the whole evening before I caught the glowing moon in the garden later that night.
A very long post indeed.
Hope everyone enjoys the pictures and have a great week ahead!!^^
His place is just around an hour ride from Paris, but along the way I saw lots of greens, which is really pleasing to the eyes when you dwell in a city for too long. ^^
You see the rays from the sun shining onto a vast plain of tall grasses, where the grasses bend over in one direction coherently as the wind blows...
*********************************
I like the cosy feeling it gives.
With flowers climbing along each wall of the house.
It was huge.
With a total of 6 bedrooms, one huge underground basement, a garage enough for 3 cars and a big garden at its back.
There are a lot of fruit trees in his garden but it was just too bad that the fruits are still too early for harvest now.
It is either they are still green, still small, or got eaten by the birds (like those cherries and wild strawberries he had).
LOL.
-The path heading to the garden at the back-
Did you see those 2 little green apples?
Something that resembles grapes but Uncle Gérard said this is poisonous.
Alas, it has colours to beautiful to resist not to be taken as a picture.
-The pine tree in the morning with dew drops-
And the snail dropped by to say "Bonjour" to everyone in the house.. ^^
*********************************
Everyone woke up early in the morning the next day for a walk in the forest, and a visit to a typical French market, as well as a hearty lunch after that.
Lunch in the midst of the woods...
How nice is that? ^^
-The kitchen that overlooks part of the garden-
*********************************
-A really nice change for city~dwellers like us isn't it?-
*********************************
We reached this wet market after we went through the woods.
My MIL was repeating to me these few words as I (the little Chinese girl among all the Frenchies) started to explore their market with my camera, "This is very very typical French market."
Just look at all the different kinds of breads they have to offer...
-Fresh, hand-made pastas, tortellinos, etc-
It is nice to see that the French still keep their tradition of having markets like these.
Unlike Singapore's wet markets which is reducing in number and rapidly being replaced by Hyper-Supermarkets.
-All the different kinds of sausages you can name-
I was very surprised to find something that looks like our Chinese dish, "三层肉" and "炉猪蹄"
French eat 咸菜 too??????????????
-Every mouse delight!!-
This woman is pouring melted cheese into a tub.
See it?
-Their range of seafood-
However, what puzzles me everytime is, why do they have to sell their prawns and crabs sauteed instead of raw?
They are fresh of cos, very fresh and tasty!! (I tried them many times)
But, why are they cook beforehand??
*********************************
-Restaurant in the midst of the woods-
-My appetiser, sauteed prawns in cream sauce-
This is Will's appetiser - Beef with the season's fresh melon slices, and cheese at the 4 corners of the plate.
Uncle Gérard and my MIL had foie gras with toasts.
I like my main dish best!!
It is my favorite scallops with a kind of rice with a fragrance I don't know how to describe.
Some kind of spices they used..
But the main thing were those big and thick scallops!! ^^
The 3 of us had the same main dish but Will wanted beef.
He commented it was nice too though.
Alas, I was too busy with my scallops to be bothered to try his.
And, I don't allow him to get an inch near my scallops!!
Hahaha.
-Fromage blanc which came after that-
It tasted like yogurt with a slight cheesy taste.
-My dessert-
It is strawberries, strawberry flavored crème and sauce, topped with layers of very thin, crispy wafers.
Adding to this was sugar icing by the sides where you can eat it with your fresh strawberries.
-How it looks like by the side-
-Will's dessert, Fondant au Chocolat with Crème Anglaise-
To make this short and sweet, I tried Will's and decided to make an exchange with him.
LOL.
It is not that mine is not nice, but I favour chocolate anything to creamy stuff anytime.
There is café and tea after that and our lunch took some 3 hours to finish.
But this is a really normal timing for a dining affair in France.
*********************************
We were walking back to the house when I chanced upon this plant...
Nobody can tell me what this is.
So, I called it the 毛毛球 plant.
Kekeke.
Does the sight of these flowers along the roads cheer you up??
-Right or Left??-
*********************************
Uncle Gérard knows I like to snap everything in my sight (冤枉啊!! 哈哈哈!!), hence, he took me in his car with everyone for a small tour around his place.
-A monument in memorial of WWI-
This sheltered area under the roof used to be where women used to wash their clothes in this river.
-The castle up in the woods-
We drove right up to this castle, but it is just a small one.
Nothing glamorous and no comparison to the one in Versailles, which is just 15km away from where Uncle Gérard lives.
-One of my favourite pics I took over the weekend-
I caught these creatures at a tree just outside the castle.
They called these "Gendarmes" in French, but I don't know what is it named in English..
Anyone can enlighten me?
*********************************
Night time is really short in Summer here.
The sun will show itself at around 0530hrs and the sky will still be quite bright at 2200hrs...
Sometimes, it is really deluding to my senses.
It made me waited for the whole evening before I caught the glowing moon in the garden later that night.
A very long post indeed.
Hope everyone enjoys the pictures and have a great week ahead!!^^
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